A Book of Jewish Thoughts by Various PDF
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The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Book of Jewish Thoughts, by Various, Edited by Joseph H. (Joseph Herman) Hertz This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: A Book of Jewish Thoughts Author: Various Editor: Joseph H. (Joseph Herman) Hertz Release Date: May 27, 2018 [eBook #57218] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF JEWISH THOUGHTS*** E-text prepared by Richard Hulse and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/bookofjewishthou00hert Transcriber’s Note Most abbreviations have been expanded in tool-tips for screen-readers and may be seen by hovering the cursor over the abbreviation. This book has illustrated drop-caps at the start of each section. These illustrations may adversely affect the pronunciation of the word with screen-readers or not display properly in some handheld devices. Footnotes are identified in the text with a superscript number and have been accumulated in a table at the end of the text. Transcriber’s Notes are used when making corrections to the text or to provide additional information for the modern reader. These notes have been accumulated in a table at the end of the book and are double underscored in the text by a solid and a dotted underline and may be seen in a tool-tip by hovering the cursor over the underscored text. A BOOK OF JEWISH THOUGHTS A BOOK OF JEWISH THOUGHTS SELECTED AND ARRANGED BY THE CHIEF RABBI (DR. J. H. HERTZ) HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE CAPE TOWN BOMBAY 5680—1920 TO THE SACRED MEMORY OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914‒1918 T PREFATORY NOTE HIS Book of Jewish Thoughts brings the message of Judaism together with memories of Jewish martyrdom and spiritual achievement throughout the ages. Its first part, ‘I am an Hebrew’, covers the more important aspects of the life and consciousness of the Jew. The second, ‘The People of the Book’, deals with Israel’s religious contribution to mankind, and touches upon some epochal events in Israel’s story. In the third, ‘The Testimony of the Nations’, will be found some striking tributes to Jews and Judaism from non-Jewish sources. The fourth part, ‘The Voice of Prayer’, surveys the Sacred Occasions of the Jewish Year, and takes note of their echoes in the Liturgy. The fifth and concluding part, ‘The Voice of Wisdom’, is, in the main, a collection of the deep sayings of the Jewish sages on the ultimate problems of Life and the Hereafter. The nucleus from which this Jewish anthology gradually developed was produced three years ago for the use of Jewish sailors and soldiers. To many of them, I have been assured, it came as a re-discovery of the imperishable wealth of Israel’s heritage; while to the non-Jew into whose hands it fell it was a striking revelation of Jewish ideals and teachings. I can pray for no better result for this enlarged Library Edition. Grateful acknowledgement is due to the authors, translators, and publishers, for their courteous permission to reprint selections from their works; to Dayan H. M. Lazarus, M.A., and Miss Elsa Linde, for various useful suggestions; and to the Revs. J. Mann, D.Litt., S. Lipson, and I. Livingstone for help in the preparation of the Index of Subjects. J. H. H. London, 1920. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. I AM AN HEBREW ◆ YE ARE MY WITNESSES: Isaiah; Jacobs; Aguilar ◆ I AM AN HEBREW: C. Adler ◆ THE GOOD FIGHT: Eleazar of Worms ◆ EVERY ISRAELITE HOLDS THE HONOUR OF HIS ENTIRE PEOPLE IN HIS HANDS: Talmud; Montefiore ◆ THE PATHS OF LIFE: Eliezer ben Isaac; Asher ben Yechiel ◆ IN THE OLD GHETTO: Philipson; E. G. Hirsch ◆ THE JEWISH WOMAN: M. Lazarus; Hertz; Talmud ◆ THE JEWISH MOTHER: Szold; Lucas ◆ RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: Cohen; Book of Morals; Morais ◆ THE SACRED TONGUE: Joseph ◆ THE HEBREW LANGUAGE: Schechter; Szold ◆ WHAT IS CULTURE? Hertz ◆ THE STUDENT OF THE TORAH: Jellinek ◆ BAR MITZVAH PRAYER: Artom ◆ ON THE THRESHOLD OF MANHOOD: Proverbs; Ethics of the Fathers ◆ A FATHER’S ADMONITION: Maimonides ◆ WHAT MAKES A MAN A JEW? Joseph ◆ ‘I BELIEVE’: Margolis ◆ JUDAISM A POSITIVE RELIGION: Schechter ◆ THE MISSION OF ISRAEL: H. Adler; Kohler ◆ TOLERANCE: Gabirol; Midrash; Crescas; Mendelssohn; Talmud ◆ OUR HERITAGE: Josephus ◆ OUR FATHERS: Ecclesiasticus ◆ THE OBLIGATIONS OF HEREDITY: Dubnow; Hertz ◆ ZEDAKAH—CHARITY: Jacob ben Asher ◆ ZEDAKAH—JUSTICE: Geiger ◆ THE JEWISH POOR: Schechter; Abrahams ◆ AT ‘THE OLD PEOPLE’S REST’, JERUSALEM: E. N. Adler ◆ SHARING THE BURDEN: Talmud; Singer ◆ THE DUTY OF SELF-RESPECT: Achad Ha’am ◆ ANTI-SEMITISM: Nordau; Schechter; Nordau; Disraeli; Hertz; Hagadah; Isaiah ◆ THE JEW AS A PATRIOT: E. Lazarus; Goldsmid ◆ THE JEWISH SOLDIER: Lucas ◆ THE JEW’S LOVE OF BRITAIN: H. Adler ◆ TO ENGLAND: Raskin ◆ JUDAISM AND THE JEW IN AMERICA: Harris; Kohut ◆ THE DELUGE OF FIRE: Hertz ◆ THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS: Joel; Isaiah; Kings; Daily Prayer Book ◆ THE MESSIANIC HOPE: Mendes; Malachi ◆ THE VISION OF A UNITED HUMANITY: Isaiah; Joseph ◆ TRUST YE IN THE LORD FOR EVER: Isaiah II. THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK ◆ ISRAEL IMMORTAL: Jeremiah; Halevi; Ecclesiasticus; Midrash ◆ THE ETERNAL RIDDLE: Raskin ◆ THE SECRET OF ISRAEL’S IMMORTALITY: Graetz ◆ THE BOOK OF BOOKS: Heine ◆ THE BIBLE: Levi; Zangwill ◆ A JEWISH VERSION OF THE BIBLE: Schechter; Friedländer; Sulzberger; Leeser; H. Adler; Translators’ Preface; Rashi; Ecclesiasticus ◆ ISRAEL THE PEOPLE OF REVELATION: Halevi; Geiger ◆ THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD AND ISRAEL IS HIS PROPHET: Zangwill ◆ MOSES: Heine ◆ THE PROPHETS: Jacobs; Shemtob; Darmesteter; J. Lazarus ◆ THE TALMUD: Deutsch ◆ JEWISH LITERATURE: Abrahams ◆ THE WORK OF THE RABBIS: Büchler ◆ ISRAEL’S HISTORY NEVER-ENDING: Magnus; Zangwill ◆ THE MEANING OF JEWISH HISTORY: Jacobs; Halevi; Gaster ◆ THE HALLOWING OF JEWISH HISTORY: Dubnow ◆ ISRAEL’S MARTYRDOM: Zunz; Graetz ◆ UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS: Josephus; Fuerst ◆ IN MEDIAEVAL ROME: Hertz; Steinschneider ◆ THE FIRST CRUSADE: Kalonymos ben Yehudah ◆ THE SECOND CRUSADE: Ephraim of Bonn ◆ JEWISH SUFFERING: Heine ◆ THE JEWS OF YORK: D’Israeli ◆ THE EXPULSION FROM SPAIN: Frankl ◆ THE EXODUS: E. Lazarus ◆ A SONG OF REDEMPTION: Gabirol ◆ SHYLOCK: Joseph ◆ ON THE EVE OF THE RE-SETTLEMENT IN ENGLAND: Manasseh ben Israel ◆ JEWISH EMANCIPATION: S. R. Hirsch; Rothschild ◆ THE JEWISH QUESTION: J. Lazarus; Franzos; Steinschneider; Zunz ◆ THE JEWS OF ENGLAND: Zangwill ◆ WELCOME OF THE HEBREW CONGREGATION, NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, U.S.A., TO GEORGE WASHINGTON ◆ BRITISH CITIZENSHIP: Hertz ◆ THE RUSSIAN JEW: I. Friedlander ◆ YIDDISH: Zangwill; Wiener ◆ RUSSO-JEWISH EDUCATION: I. Friedlander ◆ PASSOVER IN OLD RUSSIA: Antin ◆ THE POGROM: Dymov ◆ UNDER THE ROMANOFFS: Wolf; E. Lazarus ◆ SOLDIERS OF NICHOLAS: Antin ◆ BONTZYE SHWEIG: Peretz ◆ THE WATCH ON THE JORDAN: Imber ◆ THE TRAGEDY OF ASSIMILATION: Schechter; Achad Ha’am ◆ THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES: Ezekiel ◆ PALESTINE: Munk ◆ THE LAST CORPSES IN THE DESERT: Byalik ◆ ZIONISM: Herzl; Wolf; Abrahams ◆ THE BRITISH DECLARATION ON PALESTINE: Herzl; Jewish Chronicle; Hertz ◆ JUDAISM AND THE NEW JUDEA: Herzl; Saadyah; Schechter; Noah; Hertz; Eichholz III. THE TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS ◆ WORLD’S DEBT TO ISRAEL: Abbott; Cornill ◆ ISRAEL AND HIS REVELATION: Arnold ◆ ISRAEL, GREECE, AND ROME: Renan; Wagner; Lotze ◆ WHAT IS A JEW? Tolstoy ◆ THE BOOK OF THE AGES: Harnack; Scott; Whitman ◆ THE BIBLE, THE EPIC OF THE WORLD: Frazer; Stevenson; Froude ◆ THE BIBLE IN EDUCATION: Huxley; Goethe ◆ THE BIBLE AND DEMOCRACY: Wyclif; Huxley; Nietzsche ◆ THE HEBREW LANGUAGE: Renan ◆ REBECCA’S HYMN: Scott ◆ MOSES: George ◆ THE BURIAL OF MOSES: Alexander ◆ ISRAEL’S PSALTER: Dow; Rhys; Cornill ◆ THE PSALMS IN HUMAN LIFE: Prothero ◆ THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT ON HIGH: Addison ◆ O GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST: Watts ◆ THE LIVING POWER OF THE JEWISH PROPHETS: Jowett; Froude ◆ THE BOOK OF JONAH: Cornill; Goethe ◆ JOB: Carlyle; Froude ◆ ECCLESIASTES: Ellis ◆ THE BOOK OF ESTHER: Stanley; Whittier ◆ THE TALMUD: Robinson ◆ THE HUMANITY OF JEWISH WISDOM: Gorky ◆ THE PHARISEES: Huxley; Box; Herford ◆ THE JEWISH PRAYER BOOK: Biddle ◆ IN A SYNAGOGUE: Eliot ◆ THE TORCH OF JEWISH LEARNING: Beaulieu ◆ DURING THE CRUSADES: Strindberg ◆ THE EXPULSION FROM SPAIN AND PORTUGAL: Lecky ◆ A PROTEST AGAINST THE AUTO-DA-FÉ OF SEPTEMBER 20, 1761, LISBON: Voltaire ◆ THE BIBLE IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND: Green ◆ FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF THE JEWS: Macaulay ◆ IGNORANCE OF JUDAISM: Eliot; Blake ◆ ‘THEY ARE OUR ELDERS’: Beaulieu ◆ THE JEWISH CEMETERY AT NEWPORT: Longfellow ◆ THE JEW AS A CITIZEN: Roosevelt ◆ IN THE EAST END OF LONDON: Schreiner ◆ THE RUSSIAN AGONY: Milyukov; Lecky; Tolstoy; Schreiner ◆ THE BLOOD LIBEL—BRITISH PROTEST ◆ JEWISH NATIONALISM: Eliot; Sykes ◆ A JEWISH NATIONAL HOME: Balfour ◆ ISRAEL’S PRESERVATION: St. Jerome ◆ ISRAEL AND THE NATIONS: Twain IV. THE VOICE OF PRAYER: THE JEWISH YEAR ◆ ON PRAYER AND PRAISE: Philo; Zohar ◆ ON MORNING SERVICE: Shulchan Aruch ◆ AT THE DAWN I SEEK THEE: Gabirol ◆ MORNING PRAYERS: Daily Prayer Book; Bachya ◆ ADON OLAM: Abrahams; Carvalho ◆ ADON OLAM AND MODERN SCIENCE: Haffkine ◆ THE SHEMA: Hertz; Zohar ◆ ‘THE SOUL THOU HAST GIVEN ME IS PURE’: Kohler ◆ THE MERIT OF THE FATHERS: Levy; Abrahams ◆ THE KADDISH: Kompert; Wisdom of Solomon; Daniel ◆ THE HOLINESS OF HOME: Jacobs; Disraeli ◆ KINDLING THE SABBATH LIGHT: Raskin ◆ LECHA DODI: Alkabetz; Achad Ha’am ◆ SABBATH PRAYER: Zohar ◆ THE SABBATH: Salaman ◆ PRAYER BEFORE THE NEW MOON: Daily Prayer Book ◆ THE SEDER: Raskin ◆ ISRAEL’S WATCH-NIGHT: Joseph ◆ PASSOVER AND FREEDOM: Hertz; Joseph ◆ ‘ADDIR HU’: Gottheil; Talmud ◆ THE FEAST OF WEEKS: Psalms ◆ A SELF-DENYING GUILD: Joseph; Daily Prayer Book ◆ AKDOMUS: Nehoraï ◆ THE BIBLE: Rosenfeld ◆ THE SEPHER TORAH: Haffkine ◆ RELIGION AND MORALITY: Daiches ◆ SYMBOLS AND CEREMONIES: Jung ◆ CUSTOM IN RELIGION: Gottheil ◆ ‘IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TIMES’: S. R. Hirsch ◆ FAITH: Singer ◆ ODE TO ZION: Halevi ◆ THE ETERNAL CITY OF THE ETERNAL PEOPLE: Hertz; Isaiah ◆ NEW YEAR: Moïse ◆ WRITTEN AND SEALED: Baalshem; Joseph ◆ THE SHOFAR: Maimonides; Deuteronomy; Psalms ◆ MY KING: Moses ben Nachman ◆ THE LORD IS KING, THE LORD WAS KING, THE LORD SHALL BE KING FOR EVER AND EVER: Kalir ◆ IF NOT HIGHER: Peretz ◆ DAY OF ATONEMENT: Gottheil; Ecclesiasticus ◆ THE MESSAGE OF YOM KIPPUR: Hertz ◆ ‘FORGIVEN’: Yomtob of York ◆ CONFESSION: Gabirol ◆ YOM KIPPUR MEDITATIONS: Bachya; Gabirol ◆ THE INFINITE MERCIES OF GOD: Exodus; Talmud ◆ BROTHERHOOD: Hertz; Ezekiel ◆ ATONEMENT PROMISE AND ADMONITION: Isaiah ◆ LORD, THINE HUMBLE SERVANTS HEAR: Yehudah ◆ GOD THAT DOEST WONDROUSLY: Mosheh ◆ TABERNACLES: Halevi ◆ PSALMS AND MYRTLES: Kalir ◆ THE HARVEST FESTIVAL: Joseph; Disraeli ◆ JOYOUS SERVICE: Abrahams; Talmud ◆ REJOICING OF THE LAW: Festival Prayer Book ◆ SIMCHAS TORAH: Gordon ◆ THE MACCABEAN WARRIORS: Maccabees ◆ THE FEAST OF LIGHTS: E. Lazarus ◆ THE MENORAH: Herzl ◆ THE STORY OF THE MACCABEES: Joseph ◆ CHANUCAH HYMN: Gottheil ◆ PURIM: Book of Esther ◆ SERVANT OF GOD: Halevi ◆ HYMN OF GLORY: Judah the Pious V. THE VOICE OF WISDOM ◆ GOD, WHOM SHALL I COMPARE TO THEE! Halevi ◆ GREAT IS TRUTH: Esdras; Talmud ◆ THE RIGHT LIFE: Micah; Isaiah; Spinoza ◆ THE GOODNESS OF GOD’S WORK: Maimonides ◆ THE TWO NATURES IN MAN: Moses of Coucy ◆ FREEDOM OF THE WILL: Maimonides ◆ THE WICKED SAITH IN HIS HEART: Wisdom of Solomon ◆ REPENTANCE OF THE WICKED: Wisdom of Solomon ◆ WISE COUNSEL: Maimonides; Benedict of Oxford; Ethics of the Fathers ◆ THE DUTY OF HOLINESS: Leviticus; Kohler; Talmud ◆ THE CITY OF GOD: Philo; Maimonides; Zohar ◆ HUMILITY: Bachya; Daily Prayer Book; Ibn Ezra ◆ SAYINGS FROM THE TALMUD ◆ THE DEDICATED LIFE Philo ◆ GOD AND MAN: Ethics of the Fathers ◆ GOLDEN RULES: Leviticus; Talmud; Achaï ◆ DEEDS THE BEST COMMENDATION: Talmud; Ethics of the Fathers ◆ A MEDIAEVAL JEWISH MORALIST: Eleazar of Worms ◆ THE MYSTERY OF PAIN: S. A. Adler ◆ MEETING ADVERSITY: Hertz ◆ THE CONTEMPLATION OF DEATH: Montefiore; Ecclesiasticus ◆ LIGHT IN DARKNESS: Talmud ◆ WHENCE AND WHITHER: Ethics of the Fathers; H. Adler ◆ TIME AND ETERNITY: Yedaya Penini; Ecclesiastes; Derech Eretz Zutta ◆ TALMUDIC PARABLES AND LEGENDS ◆ ALMIGHTY, WHAT IS MAN? Gabirol ◆ RESIGNATION: Green ◆ IMMORTALITY: Talmud; Ethics of the Fathers ◆ ETERNAL HOPE: Psalms ◆ TRUE WISDOM: Job; Ethics of the Fathers NOTES INDEX OF AUTHORS AND SOURCES INDEX OF SUBJECTS B T T Y E EHOLD, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. AMOS 8. 11. I I AM AN HEBREW HEN said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, ... what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. JONAH 1. 8, 9. ﬠֵדָי אַתֶּם YE ARE MY WITNESSES E are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen. ISAIAH 43. 10. HE history of Israel is the great living proof of the working of Divine Providence in the affairs of the world. Alone among the nations, Israel has shared in all great movements since mankind became conscious of their destinies. If there is no Divine purpose in the long travail of Israel, it is vain to seek for any such purpose in man’s life. In the reflected light of that purpose each Jew should lead his life with an added dignity. JOSEPH JACOBS, 1897. VERY Hebrew should look upon his Faith as a temple extending over every land to prove the immutability of God and the unity of His purposes. He should regard himself as one of the pillars which support that temple from falling to the ground; and add, however insignificant in itself, to the strength, the durability, and the beauty of the whole. GRACE AGUILAR, 1842. I I ELEAZAR (ROKËACH) OF WORMS, c. 1200. (Trans. M. Joseph.) ‘A W I AM AN HEBREW WILL continue to hold my banner aloft. I find myself born—ay, born—into a people and a religion. The preservation of my people must be for a purpose, for God does nothing without a purpose. His reasons are unfathomable to me, but on my own reason I place little dependence; test it where I will it fails me. The simple, the ultimate in every direction is sealed to me. It is as difficult to understand matter as mind. The courses of the planets are no harder to explain than the growth of a blade of grass. Therefore am I willing to remain a link in the great chain. What has been preserved for four thousand years was not saved that I should overthrow it. My people have survived the prehistoric paganism, the Babylonian polytheism, the aesthetic Hellenism, the sagacious Romanism, at once the blandishments and persecutions of the Church; and it will survive the modern dilettantism and the current materialism, holding aloft the traditional Jewish ideals inflexibly until the world shall become capable of recognizing their worth. CYRUS ADLER, 1894. THE GOOD FIGHT F thou hadst lived in the dread days of martyrdom, and the peoples had fallen on thee to force thee to apostatize from thy faith, thou wouldst surely, as did so many, have given thy life in its defence. Well then, fight now the fight laid on thee in the better days, the fight with evil desire; fight and conquer, and seek for allies in this warfare of your soul, seek them in the fear of God and the study of the Law. Forget not that God recompenses according to the measure wherewith ye withstand the evil in your heart. Be a man in thy youth; but if thou wert then defeated in the struggle, return, return at last to God, however old thou mayest be. EVERY ISRAELITE HOLDS THE HONOUR OF HIS ENTIRE PEOPLE IN HIS HANDS I LL Israelites are mutually accountable for each other.’ In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrated with, he answered: ‘I am only boring under my own seat’. ‘Yes’, said his comrades, ‘but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you.’ So it is with Israel. Its weal or its woe is in the hands of every individual Israelite. TALMUD. II E Jews have a more pressing responsibility for our lives and beliefs than perhaps any other religious community. Don’t shelter yourself in any course of action by the idea that ‘it is my affair’. It is your affair, but it is also mine and the community’s. Nor can we neglect the world beyond. A fierce light beats upon the Jew. It is a grave responsibility this—to be a Jew; and you can’t escape from it, even if you choose to ignore it. Ethically or religiously, we Jews can be and do nothing light-heartedly. Ten bad Jews may help to damn us; ten good Jews may help to save M B us. Which minyan will you join? C. G. MONTEFIORE, 1900. THE PATHS OF LIFE I Y son, give God all honour and the gratitude which is His due. Thou hast need of Him, but He needs thee not. Put no trust in thy mere corporeal well-being here below. Many a one has lain down to sleep at nightfall, but at morn has not risen again. Fear the Lord, the God of thy fathers; fail never at eventide to pronounce the great word wherein Israel is wont to proclaim that He is, and that He is One, and One only; at dawn fail never to read the appointed prayer. See that thou guard well thy soul’s holiness; let the thought of thy heart be saintly, and profane not thy soul with words of impurity. Visit the sick and suffering man, and let thy countenance be cheerful when he sees it, but not so that thou oppress the helpless one with gaiety. Comfort those that are in grief; let piety where thou seest it affect thee even to tears; and then it may be that thou wilt be spared the grief of weeping over the death of thy children. Respect the poor man by gifts whose hand he knows not of; be not deaf to his beseechings, deal not hard words out to him, and give him of thy richest food when he sits at meat with thee. From a wicked neighbour, see that thou keep aloof, and spend not much of thy time among the people who speak ill of their brother-man; be not as the fly that is always seeking sick and wounded places; and tell not of the faults and failings of those about thee. Take no one to wife unworthy to be thy life’s partner, and keep thy sons close to the study of Divine things. Dare not to rejoice when thine enemy comes to the ground; but give him food when he hungers. Be on thy guard lest thou give pain ever to the widow and the orphan; and beware lest thou ever set thyself up to be both witness and judge against an other. Never enter thy house with abrupt and startling step, and bear not thyself so that those who dwell under thy roof shall dread when in thy presence. Purge thy soul of angry passion, that inheritance of fools; love wise men, and strive to know more and more of the works and the ways of the Creator. ELIEZER BEN ISAAC, 1050. II E not ready to quarrel; avoid oaths and passionate adjurations, excess of laughter and outbursts of wrath; they disturb and confound the reason of man. Avoid all dealings wherein there is a lie; utter not the name of God superfluously, or in places dirty or defiled. Cut from under thee all mere human supports, and make not gold the foremost longing of thy life; for that is the first step to idolatry. Rather give money than words; and as to ill words, see that thou place them in the scale of understanding before they leave thy lips. What has been uttered in thy presence, even though not told as secret, let it not pass from thee to others. And if one tell thee a tale, say not to him that thou hast heard it all before. Do not fix thine eyes too much on one who is far above thee in wealth, but on those who are behind thee in worldly fortune. Put no one to open shame; misuse not thy power against any one; who can tell whether thou wilt not some day be powerless thyself? Do not struggle vaingloriously for the small triumph of showing thyself in the right and a wise man in the wrong; thou art not one whit the wiser therefor. Be not angry or unkind to any one for trifles, lest thou make thyself enemies unnecessarily. Do not refuse things out of mere obstinacy to thy fellow-citizens, rather put thy will below their wishes. Avoid, as much as may be, bad men, men of persistent angry feelings, fools; thou canst get nothing from their company but shame. Be the first to extend courteous greeting to every one, whatever be his faith; provoke not to wrath one of another belief than thine. ASHER BEN YECHIEL, 1300. I S I T J B IN THE OLD GHETTO N the narrow lanes and by-ways of the old Jewish quarter of many a European town there grew up that beautiful Jewish home-life which, though its story is seldom recorded, is more important than the outer events and misfortunes that historians have made note of. And as we look upon the unsightly houses, the wretched exterior seems to float away and the home-scenes of joy and love and religious constancy shine brilliantly forth—perpetual lamps—and explain how, in spite of woe and misery such as have fallen to the lot of no other people, the Jews have found strength to live and hope on. D. PHILIPSON, 1894. AY what you will of the Judaism of the Middle Ages; call it narrow; deride it as superstitious; unless lost to all sense of justice, or without power to dive beneath the surface of the seeming to the roots of the real, you cannot but witness to the incontrovertible fact that for sweetness and spirituality of life, the Jew of the Ghetto, the Jew of the Middle Ages, the Jew under the yoke of the Talmud, challenges the whole world. E. G. HIRSCH, 1895. THE JEWISH WOMAN N the days of horror of the later Roman Empire, throughout the time of the migration of nations, it was not war alone that destroyed and annihilated all those peoples of which, despite their former world-dominating greatness, nothing remains but their name. It was rather the ensuing demoralization of home life. This is proved—it cannot be repeated too often—by the Jews; for they suffered more severely and more cruelly by wars than any other nation; but, among them, the inmost living germ of morality—strict discipline and family devotion—was at all times preserved. This wonderful and mysterious preservation of the Jewish people is due to the Jewish woman. This is her glory, not alone in the history of her own people, but in the history of the world. M. LAZARUS. HE Jew’s home has rarely been his ‘castle’. Throughout the ages it has been something far higher—his sanctuary. J. H. HERTZ. E careful not to cause woman to weep, for God counts her tears. Israel was redeemed from Egypt on account of the virtue of its women. He who weds a good woman, it is as if he had fulfilled all the precepts of the Law. TALMUD. THE JEWISH MOTHER EWISH custom bids the Jewish mother, after her preparations for the Sabbath have been completed on Friday evening, kindle the Sabbath lamp. That is symbolic of the Jewish woman’s influence on her own home, and through it upon larger circles. She is the inspirer of a pure, chaste, family life whose hallowing influences are incalculable; she is the centre of all spiritual endeavours, the confidante and fosterer of every undertaking. To her the Talmudic sentence applies: ‘It is woman alone through whom God’s blessings are vouchsafed to a house’. HENRIETTA SZOLD, 1893. I T T T YIDDISH CRADLE SONG O! HUSH thee, my darling, sleep soundly my son, Sleep soundly and sweetly till day has begun; For under the bed of good children at night There lies, till the morning, a kid snowy white. We’ll send it to market to buy Sechora, While my little lad goes to study Torah. Sleep soundly at night and learn Torah by day, Then thou’ll be a Rabbi when I have grown grey. But I’ll give thee to-morrow ripe nuts and a toy, If thou’lt sleep as I bid thee, my own little boy. (Trans. Alice Lucas.) RELIGIOUS EDUCATION T seems to me that if the development of the religious sense is omitted from education, the most exalted idea of goodness is left out. Life is so much the poorer for being shorn of the halo of high spiritual aspiration. Instead of a fixed and lofty ideal of life and conduct, based on the highest conception of Divine Perfection of which the human mind is capable, there prevails a limited and fluctuating ideal, subject to the chance influences of surroundings and associates, and coloured by the social grade and worldly interests of each individual. JULIA M. COHEN, 1907. HE thread on which the different good qualities of human beings are strung as pearls, is the fear of God. When the fastenings of this fear are unloosed, the pearls roll in all directions and are lost one by one. BOOK OF MORALS, 15th cent. HE knowledge of Hebrew is the golden hinge upon which our national and religious existence turns. Flowing down from the hills of eternity, the Hebrew language has been set apart by God as the receptacle of truths destined to sway mankind and humanize the world. SABATO MORAIS, 1876. THE SACRED TONGUE 1 HE Synagogue service is essentially the expression of the soul of collective Israel. In the Synagogue we meet as Jews, there in prayer, in aspiration, in confession of faith, to carry on the stream of spiritual effort which has flowed unbroken through the ages ever since Israel became conscious of himself. Therefore the prayers will not merely voice private needs and modern ideas, but will chiefly speak of Israel. And so they will largely be in Hebrew, Israel’s historic language. You may get rid of Hebrew, but with it you will get rid of the Synagogue too, of the Synagogue as a living organism, as the well-spring of Jewish feeling and the inspiration of Jewish life. Nor is this all. The claim of Hebrew, though bound up with the interests of public worship, yet transcends them. It will meet you whenever you open your Jewish history, whenever you open your Bible. As long as we remain Jews and call the Bible our own, the Tongue in which it is written must be inestimably sacred to us. MORRIS JOSEPH, 1907.
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